Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerIn this May photo, Antonio Rodriguez of Atlantic Cape Fisheries tosses an oyster into a collection bucket as he harvests from a farm raised oyster beds during low tide in the Deleware Bay in Burleigh, NJ. The state's oyster industry faces a shutdown if the DEP does not comply with federally-mandated health standards.

TRENTON — New Jersey faces a potential shutdown of its $790 million oyster, clam and mussel harvest if federally-mandated health inspections and coastal patrols are not improved this summer, according to state and federal authorities.

How the state responds over the next few months to federal requirements geared toward preventing outbreaks of illness from contaminated shellfish is crucial to the mollusk industry, said officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA contends the state Department of Health and Senior Services failed to conduct adequate inspections in 2008 and 2009 at plants that process the mollusks hauled in by small, commercial fishing operations.

The financially strapped state Department of Environmental Protection also failed, the FDA said, to conduct mandated patrols of polluted coastal waters to guard against the poaching and illegal sale of contaminated mollusks.

"As New Jersey attempts to adjust to the impacts of the economic downturn, it is important for the department to consider that further cuts in these field functions will likely result in N.J.’s inability to maintain compliance," Gary J. Wolf, shellfish specialist for the FDA’s Central Region, wrote in a federal assessment report.

Unless adjustments are made, he said the state may not be able to go forward "without the closure of a significant portion of NJ’s coastal waters to shellfish harvest."

Wolf additionally told The Star-Ledger that state officials are working "to come into compliance," but will be monitored this summer because the FDA is obligated to suspend shellfish shipments from any state that fails to correct deficiencies in its shellfish program.

The report, circulated last week by the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said there was "inadequate enforcement staffing" in 2008 and 2009 by state health officials at shellfish processing plants. Those officials are charged with making the plants meet temperature-control requirements to guard against "Vibrio parahaemolyticus," a bacterium that causes serious illnesses in humans. The FDA also said that last year, the DEP did not fully patrol 21 of 30 polluted coastal areas designated for monitoring to avoid poachers harvesting and selling contaminated mollusks.

"We have expanded our inspection staff and we will be out full-force this summer inspecting shellfish harvesting and processing centers. We expect to meet all the FDA inspection requirements this season," said Marilyn Riley, a spokeswoman for the state health department.

The DEP has begun borrowing boats from the State Police just to meet minimum FDA patrol requirements, said Assistant DEP Commissioner Amy Cradic.

Cradic cited the FDA data Thursday before the state Senate Committee on the Environment and Energy to explain why the DEP has ordered the removal of experimental oyster beds set up by educational and scientific groups to re-establish the native shellfish in contaminated coastal waters. The DEP does not have the resources to patrol the beds, she said.

The nonprofit NY/NJ Baykeeper has campaigned to keep its two oyster beds in the polluted Raritan Bay area, arguing the bivalves help cleanse the waters, and Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) has introduced a bill to ensure the experimental beds continue. But the DEP contends it cannot patrol the beds and there is nothing to protect them from poachers.

"The biggest problem when oysters are poached from polluted waters is, if they get to an irreputable dealer, they are going to put a tag on them saying they came from a legitimate harvester — and if someone gets sick, boom, everything is shut down," said Steve Fleetwood, whose Bivalve Packing Company has harvested oysters from the Delaware Bay for 30 years.

About 20 percent of state coastal waters are off limits to mollusk harvesting, yet 66 people were caught poaching in those waters last year.

"We’re not trying to beat up on a research organization. But there are hundreds of people involved in our shellfish industry, not conglomerates, but small businesses and families who rely on us to meet the federal standards so this $790 million industry stays open — and we have to address this immediately," said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese.

The Baykeeper reluctantly agreed Friday to pull out its oyster beds after receiving a DEP notice of violation Thursday.

"While we are deeply upset that DEP has refused to discuss alternatives to removal of the oysters and instead insists upon a course of action that ultimately will be harmful to the Raritan Bay and its ecosystem, we will nevertheless agree under duress to the timeline set out by yesterday’s notice of violation," said executive director Deborah Mans, who said she will submit a removal plan by Tuesday.